On April 13-15, I had the fortunate opportunity of visiting the University of Notre Dame. I have always wanted to visit this campus for many different reasons. First and foremost, love them or hate them, Notre Dame football is legendary. It has created a mystique for their campus. But, more importantly, the school itself is an important Catholic institution in this country. And, it offers one of the most premier educational experiences for any student.
I ventured onto the campus late on a Wednesday afternoon, to meet with a very active ISI Group there called the “Orestes Brownson Society.” This group is spectacular, and they’re some pretty hard-core Catholics, I might add. Last fall, they were reading an ISI Book called Common Truths: New Perspectives on Natural Law. The book features about 15 distinct essays, 4 of which were written by Notre Dame professors, including the new President of the University, Rev. John Jenkins. Some of these professors have come in to talk about the chapter in the book they wrote, including Rev. Jenkins, while he was President-elect of the University.
This semester, this group is reading a non-ISI Book by Hilaire Belloc called “The Great Heresies.” This book explores all sorts of heresies, including Arianism, Islamism, Albigensian, and Protestantism. Yes, my friends, Belloc includes Protestants and Muslims as “heretics” of the Christian faith. This will tell you a bit of what these students are like. But, only a bit. They have taken on these works at a very high intellectual level and they seek to keep the University of Notre Dame on firm ground, as the founders of the school would have preferred.
On Wednesday night, April 13, I met about 7 students from this group at “Legends,” a resaturant on the campus, situated right next to the football stadium. When we were done with dinner, I asked the waitress to take our picture. The picture below is what came out, and I can only say that it was Providential that she captured the quote on the wall behind us (which I hadn’t even noticed until I saw the picture). It is a quote from one of the founders of the University, who first said it way back in the mid-19th century, that “This University cannot fail to succeed…”
In a way, this is why ISI exists and why I go around and help these students do what they do… so that the universities cannot fail to succeed.
I’ll have more on Notre Dame in the next blog…